Apple's Share of Profits Among Top Mobile Phone Vendors Hits 75%

[*LTD*]

Originally Posted by dgree03

Anyway, Amazing that apple takes that much of the profit in this space. Selling similar or often inferior parts for a premium price works well. I hope others don't follow, it will slow down innovation.

You're not selling a device. You're selling User Experience and the ecosystem that's built around it.

The competition has yet to learn this.

[gri]

Originally Posted by wickerman1893

Pretty unbelievable for what the sales were in 2007

Yep - I actually miss those days where NOT everyone had an iPhone and the iPhone 1 was rare and people were curious to see it. I went with it to Europe to a meeting and people flocked around me... And from the first switching it on I knew that I would never have another phone again (at that time flip phone).

[RalfTheDog]

Who were the red and the purple? Sad when your sales are not enough to give you room for your name.

[JAT]

Originally Posted by dgree03

Terrible OS? LMAO you just lost all credibility, which if you make statements like this frequently, your credibility wasn't that high anyway

Anyway, Amazing that apple takes that much of the profit in this space. Selling similar or often inferior parts for a premium price works well. I hope others don't follow, it will slow down innovation.

When did Apple start selling phone parts?

[cotak]

Originally Posted by hobo.hopkins

Hopefully this will put an end to people mindlessly spouting off that Apple is a dying beast.

Except that saying Apple's success in the future is assured at this point is like the Romans saying Rome's empire will last forever during Trajan's rule.

[xtemperedx]

"$500? For a phone?!?!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qycUOENFIBs

[JAT]

Originally Posted by RalfTheDog

Who were the red and the purple? Sad when your sales are not enough to give you room for your name.

Sony and LG. The actual article has better naming.

[0dev]

Originally Posted by xtemperedx

"$500? For a phone?!?!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qycUOENFIBs

...And a few years later, Microsoft makes a touch screen OS for smartphones with no business features in an attempt to compete with it

[wickerman1893]

Originally Posted by gri

Yep - I actually miss those days where NOT everyone had an iPhone and the iPhone 1 was rare and people were curious to see it. I went with it to Europe to a meeting and people flocked around me... And from the first switching it on I knew that I would never have another phone again (at that time flip phone).

Exactly...I feel the same way. The feeling of being different and "supreme" to other phones was great. The phone is a lot better now...but it's so common that it takes away from the feeling a little.

[cotak]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.1; en-us; Galaxy Nexus Build/ITL41F) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

Sell to joe and jane yes. Making money off it not so much even for apple.

It was always surprising to me how little apple gets from itunes. Vs their profits from phone hardware.

[Analog Kid]

Wow, that chart is remarkable to look at. To see a titan like Nokia whither and die in 5 years is jaw dropping. Any business leader at risk of complacency needs to have this chart taped to their glasses-- this is what happens when you think you rule the world. You need to be proactive from beginning to end, because things can change too quickly to react.

I also love that this puts the lie to the model where success depends on shipping cheaper and cheaper crap in higher and higher volumes.

[Exhale]

Originally Posted by cotak

It was always surprising to me how little apple gets from itunes. Vs their profits from phone hardware.

Does the average customer even spend 100 dollars on iTunes services? 50 dollars? If you consider the 30% revenue straight as profit, that still adds up to a very small sum.

[the8thark]

Apple reached 75% of profit share, nearly 40% of revenue share and 9% of units share.

So Apple make 75% of profits with 9% of the shipments (and sales). If that's not amazing I don't know what is. Apple worked out how to sell less of a product then the competition but make way more profit doing so.

[firewood]

Originally Posted by cotak

It was always surprising to me how little apple gets from itunes. Vs their profits from phone hardware.

If you have an iPhone, how much do you spend on apps?

Versus the amount you've spent on your iPhone(s) plus (in the U.S.) 2 years worth of your cellular bill payments (a big portion of which goes to the iPhone price subsidy, and thus Apple's profits).

----------

Originally Posted by the8thark

So Apple make 75% of profits with 9% of the shipments (and sales). If that's not amazing I don't know what is. Apple worked out how to sell less of a product then the competition but make way more profit doing so.

These percentages are not that far out of line. In lots of market categories and professions, one rule of thumb is that the top 20% of customers produce 80% of the profits. Apple is skimming half of the cream on top. After that, it's diminishing returns. Selling stuff to blokes who have no money for the best bling (and hoping to make it up in volume) for the companies below.

[oliversl]

Summary: every single mayor Phone vendor, had its profit declined in the last quarter, but not Apple.

[AppleScruff1]

Originally Posted by *LTD*

You're not selling a device. You're selling User Experience and the ecosystem that's built around it.

The competition has yet to learn this.

Is the message bug part of that user experience that the competition has yet to learn?
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1318251

[kdarling]

Originally Posted by oliversl

Summary: every single mayor Phone vendor, had its profit declined in the last quarter, but not Apple.

Samsung's profit increased as well.

That's the trouble with share charts like this one; they're relative instead of showing actual amounts.

[vrDrew]

Originally Posted by AppleScruff1

Is the message bug part of that user experience that the competition has yet to learn?

Maybe you missed this part of the story:

This was an extremely rare situation that occurred when a retail employee did not follow the correct service procedure and used their personal SIM to help a customer who did not have a working SIM," Apple representative Natalie Harrison told The Loop. "This resulted in a temporary situation that has since been resolved by the employee.

You can probably get ANY machine to malfunction if you try hard enough, even an iPhone. And the several hundred thousand people who buy iPhones every day don't seem to be concerned (with good reason) about accidentally putting someone else's SIM card in their phones.

On the other hand, I see its taken Google almost three years to finally do something to help rid its Marketplace of malware.

So: One iPhone user gets some weird messages after a store employee disregarded procedure, while five million Android users get infected with Counterclank.

Same thing, right?

[*LTD*]

Originally Posted by AppleScruff1

Is the message bug part of that user experience that the competition has yet to learn?
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1318251

Not quite a showstopper, now is it. It certainly won't make anyone trade in their Apple device.

The competition's problems run far deeper than a bug or two.

[MattInOz]

Originally Posted by kdarling

Samsung's profit increased as well.

That's the trouble with share charts like this one; they're relative instead of showing actual amounts.

They also ignore overall market growth. They play to the silly notion for someone to win others must lose.

[*LTD*]

Originally Posted by kdarling

Samsung's profit increased as well.

That's the trouble with share charts like this one; they're relative instead of showing actual amounts.

Apple's profits were actually massive. That better?

[AppleScruff1]

Originally Posted by *LTD*

Not quite a showstopper, now is it. It certainly won't make anyone trade in their Apple device.

The competition's problems run far deeper than a bug or two.

What are Samsung's problems?

[*LTD*]

Originally Posted by AppleScruff1

What are Samsung's problems?

Android. Mitigated somewhat by going in Apple's direction. Do note that the only really successful OEM has chosen to approach a more vertical business model.

Unfortunately, Android on tablets, however, is proving to be a failure.

[DakotaGuy]

Originally Posted by 0dev

Yes, speaking as someone who's used Symbian since the Nokia 6600 before moving to iOS, Symbian is utterly, utterly terrible.

Which makes one wonder why didn't Nokia go after Palm's WebOS? That one had some real potential.

[marksman]

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Nothing short of amazing.